1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display apparatus and an image display method for displaying images classified into groups of similar images. The present invention also relates to a program that causes a computer to execute the image display method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Classification of images into a plurality of groups has been carried out according to information added to the images such as that indicating times of photography and photography locations (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-112997). Methods of image classification have also been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 2000-112997 and 2000-048181. In these methods, characteristic quantities such as colors, lightness, frequency information, and edge information are calculated for respective images, and an overall characteristic quantity is calculated by weighting the characteristic quantities. The overall characteristic quantity is compared among the images, and the images are classified into groups of similar images. Furthermore, a method of judgment has been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-090113 wherein learning is carried out in advance employing similar images as learning patterns and whether two images are similar is judged based on a result of the learning.
However, although the methods described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 2000-112997, 2000-048181 and 2000-090113 can classify images into groups of similar images, efficient display of the similar images cannot be realized by these methods.